


Ataraxia

by Ghcst_Kinq



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Andrew Minyard Has Feelings, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bisexual Kevin Day, Dead Riko Moriyama, Drake dies because hes an asshole, M/M, Mention of Kevin/Neil, Mentions of Rape, Mentions of Suicide, Minor Character Death, Multi, Mutual Pining, POV Andrew Minyard, POV Neil Josten, RIP Kevin's hand, Raven Neil Josten, Riko Moriyama is an Asshole, mafia stuff, mentions of self harm
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:27:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25324639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghcst_Kinq/pseuds/Ghcst_Kinq
Summary: Ataraxia is defined as a sense of serene calmness-which is all that Neil Josten and Andrew Minyard have been searching for their entire lives. But with Neil being a part of the Ravens, and Andrew never having felt peace before, it seems an impossible task. But when Kevin Day joins the Foxes as their new Coach and orders Andrew to help get Neil to join them instead, the two click and start to find that sense of serenity in each other.
Relationships: Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 4
Kudos: 35





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fic I've ever posted, please go easy on me. ;-;

Being with the Raven’s meant dealing with… a lot of bullshit.

It meant getting up at the crack of dawn to do exy drills, not doing full classwork because your team had to practice. It meant never going anywhere alone because of all the shady back-deals that went on with the Yakuza and several other gangs. Mostly though, for Neil Josten, it meant watching in horror as the Raven’s Captain broke his best friend’s hand.

  
Neil was no stranger to violence. He’d been around the Yakuza all his life—hell, his father was deemed, “The Butcher of Baltimore” for how ruthless he was at protecting his area. He’d seen people getting shot, people getting their throats cut—he’d thought that he’d really become numb to it.

But hearing Kevin Day’s bones break and the horrifying scream that came out of his mouth put feelings of fear that Neil hadn’t felt in years.

  
He wanted to run. He wanted to run away and hide and cry like a sad toddler; but all he could do was stand there in shock, looking at the exposed bones in Kevin’s hand.

  
“I would love to see you be the number one striker now, Kevin.”

  
It was Riko Moriyama’s voice and it snapped Neil out of his state, looking towards Riko’s face, or more specifically, the tattoo of the number one on his cheek. Kevin had a matching two, and Neil a three.

  
It had started as a silly thing they did when they were kids. They always knew they were going to grow up to play for the Ravens, so they had chosen their numbers early—had drawn them on with a permanent marker over and over again, and gotten them tattooed when they turned sixteen.

  
Riko, being “number one” along with being the son of the Yakuza boss, had always taken the ranking on their faces seriously. Neil had imagined it was because of daddy issues. Riko was the second-born son and was therefore less important in their mafia family—so he sent him to live with his Uncle Tetsuji here, at Edgar Allen University with the Ravens to train to be apart of them to earn the Yakuza even more money. Neil figured that Riko always felt inferior because of that, and so he always wanted to feel superior with Kevin, Neil, and their fourth “group member”, Jean Moreau.

  
But Kevin was clearly the better player. Neil wouldn’t ever admit it out loud, but better than him, even. Probably better than anyone currently on the actual Raven’s team.

  
Kevin had been cocky about it recently, Neil had to admit that. This coming year, they were officially able to enroll in EAU, officially able to become true Ravens. And Neil thought Riko was getting scared of not really being number one.

  
But taking the four of them out to this ski lodge in the middle of nowhere and breaking Kevin’s hand? That wasn’t exactly what Neil thought would come out of this. Killing him, maybe. Traumatizing everyone and injuring to the point where he couldn’t play exy? Definitely not.

  
“Wesninski, take the hammer,” Riko said, and tossed it over to Neil, who caught it before it hit his feet.

  
Riko’s words were directed at Neil. His real name was Nathaniel Wesninski, but the Yakuza thought it was a good idea to change his name when he was younger to avoid anything that could connect Neil to his father, and therefore the Yakuza itself. Riko never let him forget who he was born as, though.

  
“Does everyone see what happens when you cross me?” Riko demanded, looking between Kevin, Neil, and Jean, who was still frozen in fear. “DO YOU?!”

  
“Yes sir,” Neil and Jean mumbled out.

  
“Fuck you,” Kevin said, his eyes were flickering, and he sounded close to passing out. Neil wanted nothing more to run over to him to try to help, but that was just suicide.

  
Riko put his hand in Kevin’s hair and forced him to look at him. “I do not advise you talking to me like that. Especially when I’m being so kind—Nathaniel? Drive Kevin to the nearest hospital—tell them he’s been in a skiing accident.”

  
Neil just felt himself freeze. “I—you think they’ll believe that?”

  
“Doesn’t matter if they do or not—just take him.”

  
Neil looked at Kevin, barely conscious now—and looked at Jean, who looked like he was going to pass out. He knew that Riko wouldn’t take him to the hospital and that Kevin had to go.

  
So five minutes later, Jean was helping him load Kevin in Neil’s personal Ravens car. He wasn’t conscious at all then, just letting out a soft groan as he was sprawled out into the back seat. Neil sighed and shut the door.

  
“Please make sure Tetsuji and Kengo know about this,” Neil said, looking at Jean. “You know he’s going to lie. Don’t let him. Not about this.”

  
Tetsuji Moriyama was Riko’s uncle and the coach of the Ravens, but Kengo was the firstborn son with the Moriyama’s and therefore inherited the “family business” meaning the Yakuza. Neil couldn’t imagine either of them would be happy at Riko ruining their investment.

  
“I won’t,” Jean said, but he was looking inside the backseat window. “Just make sure he’s safe.”

  
“I will,” Neil said, nodding at him before going into the car, taking a look at Kevin before driving off to the hospital.

Neil didn’t know if it was because they were in the middle of nowhere, or because it was in the middle of the night, but the hospital didn’t ask too many questions. He rushed Kevin inside and they took him to the operating room while Neil filled out Kevin’s paperwork for him. He told the nurse that he got separated from their skiing group and he found him like that. She didn’t ask for any more information than that.

He did have to lie and say they were biological brothers though, but it was not far from the truth—and he’d be damned if he couldn’t see Kevin afterward.

  
Riko was texting his phone like crazy the entire time, giving him demands on what to say, but Neil ignored it for the first few hours because he didn’t have to say anything. After that, though, he got annoyed at the incessant buzzing and sent him a text himself. _“I told them it was a skiing accident, they believed it. He’s still in surgery. Will update tomorrow.”_ And then shut his phone off.

  
Kevin was in surgery for quite a few hours more after that.

  
Neil had been trying to distract himself with the hospital’s television, and their snack area, and it had worked for a little while—but there was only so much a granola bar and an episode of FRIENDS could do. He knew Kevin would be alright—physically. His hand didn’t get infected, it was just broken, and that never killed anyone. But the mental toll it would take—Kevin wouldn’t be able to play this year—possibly ever.

  
It was a cruel kind of irony.

  
Kevin, along with himself and Jean, had basically been bought as children. Jean and Neil because of mafia ties—Neil’s father working for the Yakuza, Jean’s parents owing them. Kevin because Tetsuji knew his mother and “took him in” after she died to raise him as his own alongside with Riko and the other three. All four of them were raised since the age of five to eat, sleep, drink exy. They were even homeschooled at EAU since that age purely so they would have more time to practice. None of them had stepped foot in the real world their entire life because of this sport. And besides the messes Riko tended to create, Kevin and Neil loved every second of it.

  
And now Kevin couldn’t play.

  
Kevin wouldn’t be able to play the sport he had spent his whole life working up to playing professionally. It might not be permanent, he had to remind himself. But even so, he would never play for the Ravens. If you weren’t recruited in your Freshman year, excluded the “Main Four” as they were called, you weren’t eligible to play. And if Kevin couldn’t play for the Ravens, he might not make it to Court—

  
“Neil,” the doctor that had taken Kevin to surgery—Whitman, he thought—had come out to the waiting room. “Day, is it?”

  
It was Kevin’s last name, but Neil had taken it for the night, so he nodded. “Yes sir.”

  
“Your brother, he is in pretty bad shape—mentally, more so than physically,” he said. “His hand will be in a cast for three months, after which, I would love to see him in aftercare. But when he woke up from surgery, he was screaming. We thought in pain, but… it wasn’t. He’s sedated right now. Would you like to go to his room?”

  
Neil imagined the kind of mess Kevin was right now and wanted to punch a wall, but he nodded, silently balling up his fists.

  
He wanted to punch Riko so bad. Kevin was Neil and Jean’s constant rock—when things got tough at EAU, he had motivated them to keep fighting.

  
And now he was tied up to a hospital bed with his hand in a cast, shivering in his sleep.

  
“The sedative will hopefully keep him out for a few hours, but we’ll have a nurse check on him hourly,” Whitman said. “We’re just hoping when he does wake up, he’s more sobered.”

  
Neil nodded in agreement. He’d never even seen Kevin cry until tonight, and he wouldn’t like to see it again.

  
“Will you be staying the night?”

  
Neil nodded again. “If I’m allowed.”

  
“You are, but keep in mind, we’ve got to wake him up early to get some more x-rays and talk to him about physical therapy. So, I don’t know how much sleep you’ll be able to get.”

  
Neil was used to working on six hours of sleep with the rest full of exy training. “Not a problem. Could you just—leave us alone? Please?”

  
“Of course,” Dr. Whitman nodded, leaving the room and shutting the door for him.

  
Neil turned to look at Kevin again, feeling his heart sink deep inside his stomach.

  
So many emotions were swimming through his head. He was sad for Kevin, angry at Riko, angry at Kevin, scared for him and what the future held for any of them.

  
“I told you to stop being so cocky, you asshole,” Neil sighed as he went to sit down at the chair opposite of the bed. “Everyone knew you were better than him, you didn’t have to say it yourself.”

  
Kevin was still unconscious and didn’t move—obviously.

  
Neil just sighed again and made a makeshift bed on the chair—try to catch a little bit of sleep while he could.

He was only asleep for what felt like half an hour when he woke up to Kevin calling out his name.

  
“Neil, Neil, please wake up,” he said, and Neil could hear rustling.

  
He forced his eyes to open and looked over to Kevin, trying to sit up. He got up and walked over to him, laying him back down. “Don’t move,” he said, trying to sound as soft as he could, but his voice came out hoarse. “You’re on a shitload of morphine—you’ll fall over.”

  
Kevin sighed, taking shallow breathes. “I thought it was a nightmare… my hand…”

  
“Broken in twenty different places—Doctor said you’re going to need physical therapy for it,” he said, because there was no use in sugarcoating it.

  
He just nodded as if that’s what he expected. He looked surprisingly calm for a man whose life was crumbling on top of him.

  
“Is my bag still in the trunk?”

  
“What?” Neil asked, part of his brain trying to remember if he’d taken it out. He didn’t. “Why are you worried about that?”

  
“It has—something important in it,” he said. “Could you check? Please?’

  
Neil paused before he nodded, walking out of the room and finding the nurse from earlier. “Um, excuse me? Kevin Day is awake. Could you do the tests that need to be done now, maybe? I just want him to get as much rest as he can afterwards.”  
She nodded and started typing on the computer. “I’ll see if a tech is available.”

  
“Thank you,” he said, and paused as he started walking. “I… left his door open. Could you just—take special care to listen in? I’m only going to be gone for—a minute, but…”

  
She seemed to stiffen up a bit. “You think he’d hurt himself?”

  
Neil was worried about that—but he didn’t want to get him put on suicide watch or anything. “He hasn’t expressed anything like that, but it was a pretty traumatic experience.”

  
He knew he fucked up as soon as he said that, but she nodded, and Neil left before he could make it worse.

  
Neil went outside popped the trunk open. Sure enough, Kevin’s bag was there. He paused, thinking about what he could possibly need from it, but grabbed it, shut the trunk, and walked back.

  
When Neil got back, two people were in the room. One was standing at the edge of the bed, and the other seemed to be doing tests. Neil stayed just outside of it, but watched Kevin’s face as he spoke. Completely devoid of any actual emotion—just like Neil when he was lying with Riko.

  
Those people were in there forever, but eventually they walked out and Neil walked inside without acknowledging them, shutting the door. “I got—”

  
“I won’t be able to play,” Kevin said, barely a whisper. “Probably not ever again.”

  
Neil frowned and walked over to the bed, setting his bag at the edge of it. “Not with that attitude you won’t.”

  
Kevin sat up and with his good hand tried to open his bag. With Kevin being right-handed, it proved difficult. Neil opened it before he saw Kevin cry again. He looked at Neil for a moment before he started to throw everything out of his bag. It wasn’t until the bag was emptied that he seemed to get what he wanted, pulling out a folder with a sigh.

  
“I made a deal with David Wymack,” Kevin said. “That he’d take me away from the Ravens whenever I wanted, take me to the Foxes.”

  
Coach David Wymack was one of the inventors of Exy. Him, along with Tetsuji Moriyama, and Kevin’s mother Kayleigh Day, all took part in its invention. Tetsuji and Kayleigh invented the sport in Japan, and Wymack helped bring it to the States. He coached the Palmetto State Foxes. They weren’t the best team, and they didn’t have the best reputation, but he still got respect from the NCAA.

  
Wymack was also Kevin’s father. He was never told about it, but a letter from Kevin’s mom that he held onto since he was a child explained that she hadn’t wanted him to know at the time, but that it was Kevin’s decision to tell him. So far in his eighteen-year-long life, he hadn’t. That part Neil didn’t ask a lot about, because Kevin didn’t like thinking about it—but it was interesting that Wymack would make that deal with him without knowing that they were related.

  
“Will that make a difference now? With your current… condition?’ he asked. He didn’t want to be an asshole, but that was the elephant in the room. The Foxes team wasn’t that great (they barely made it to finals last year) but even so, Neil didn’t think they’d be desperate enough to let someone with a broken hand play.

  
Kevin seemed to think about that for the first time, but pulled out a card anyways, motioning at Neil to grab the hospital phone for him, which he did.

  
It took him a few moments before he could type in the number, but eventually, he did, wedging the phone between his shoulder and his ear. “How far away is South Carolina? Not too far, right?”

  
“About three hours,” Neil said. “It’s late, though, you think he’d—”

  
“Wymack? It’s Kevin,” he said, cutting Neil off. “I know it’s late, but there’s been an emergency, could you come to—” at this, Kevin looked at him for an answer.

  
“St. Joseph’s.”

  
He repeated it, and after a moment of silence, Neil could hear Wymack’s voice over the phone, loud enough to hear, but not loud enough to make out words.

  
“I’ll explain it when you get here,” he said, not seeming to be phased by whatever Wymack said. Another pause. “Thank you.”

  
Kevin hung up the phone. Neil took it to put it back on the hospital table. “He’s coming?”

  
“He is,” Kevin said. “I suggest you come with us.”

  
Neil could feel himself wanting to—obviously, he didn’t want to stay with the Ravens, with Riko, but he had no choice: if he left, his father would come after him.

  
“I can’t,” Neil said, trying his hardest to keep his voice level. “You know my family owes them—they expect money to come out of me. But... Tetsuji took you in for free. You weren’t some investment. Maybe… they’ll let you go without trying to kill you, but not me.”

  
Kevin looked like he expected that answer. “Wymack will get here in a few hours. Think it over, at least.”

Neil didn’t stop thinking about leaving with Kevin. He never had a choice in the matter, whether or not he wanted to be in the Ravens—whether or not he even wanted to play exy.

  
He didn’t particularly like the Foxes team. Wymack had a thing about taking in people who needed second chances. People with prison records, who grew up in foster care, who had a history of drug use. It was a good idea in theory, but the team worked about as well as you’d expect it to because of it.

  
But joining the Foxes would be the first choice Neil had ever made for himself. Legally, he hadn’t joined the Ravens, since he hadn’t turned 18 yet—so he could get away on that point.

  
But Nathan Wesninski was nothing to be toyed around with. He owed the Yakuza, and more specifically, Tetsuji, Neil’s life. And if Neil left, Nathan would no doubt be ordered to kill him to pay off that debt. And while Neil was his son, Nathan wouldn’t hesitate to bash his face in.

  
It was almost unfair. Kevin could leave, and Neil would almost definitely be able to convince everyone it wasn’t a great loss because of his hand—but Neil would have to stay. To protect the other Ravens if nothing else.

  
He wanted to be able to leave so badly that it made his chest ache.

  
After about half an hour of them both stewing in their own thoughts, Kevin started talking. “Trojan Practices started today,” he said. “Do you want to see the recap?”

  
The USC Trojans were Kevin’s favorite team—for many reasons. They were actually good, and they were the only team to rival the Ravens, being the main two. Even though the Ravens always won, the Trojans have met them in the finals since the game started, basically.

  
If anything could distract Kevin right now, it would’ve been that, so Neil nodded and watched Kevin flip through the channels before landing on ESPN. Sure enough, they were recapping everyone’s practices.

  
They spent a long time just sitting there in silence, one of them commenting on a person's form, or the game they played to test accuracy. It reminded Neil of the times Kevin would sneak into Neil and Jean’s room to watch old games and practices and talk to them about it. It just made his heart hurt more.

  
But all too soon, there was a knock on the door.

  
Both of them straightened up a bit in their respective spots. “Come in,” Kevin said, his voice cracking a bit. Neil wondered if his doubts seeped into Kevin’s mind and felt bad. He wanted Kevin to have a positive outlook into this, even if he didn’t. Before he could feel too bad about it, David Wymack walked inside.

  
Wymack was a tall man. And muscular, with flame tattoos up his arms. Basically, if you looked up, “guy-who-couldn’t-make-pros-so-he-became-a-coach” Wymack would pop up. That’s not supposed to be insulting, because Wymack enjoyed coaching, so maybe he wanted to look like a stereotype.

  
Wymack’s eyes immediately went to Kevin. He rushed over to inspect the damage, cursing about a million times. “What the fuck happened?”

  
“Riko is going to put out a statement that says it was a skiing accident,” Kevin said. “But… he had a hammer, and…”

  
It was clear by Kevin’s face he didn’t want to say the rest. Wymack allowed his imagination to take over what happened and nodded. “Well, you’re not fucking going back. I’ll get you discharged, and—and then we’ll go back to my apartment… and…” for the first time, he looked over and seemed to notice Neil. “What are you doing here?”

  
“Riko told me to take him to the hospital,” he said. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to stop you from taking him somewhere safe.”

  
“Are you coming with?”

  
His response was so immediate and genuine that it made Neil pause. He could leave with him, with Kevin, right now.

  
But he couldn’t do that to the Foxes, to Jean. Or to the rest of the Ravens. He didn’t want them to suffer because of him. It wasn’t fair.

  
“He can’t,” Kevin said, giving him a knowing look. “It’s just me.”

  
Wymack nodded. “You could come, though, you know. We would protect you.”

  
“Protect me,” Neil said. “But you can’t protect the rest of my team. It’s not a deal until then.”

  
Wymack nodded in understanding, said he was going to find a doctor, and left the room.

The rest of the night went way too fast for Neil’s taste.

  
Wymack came in with a doctor, who explained about aftercare and physical therapy, and gave him a prescription for pain meds before going to file discharge papers. While the doctors did that, Wymack spent a lot of time on the phone with Abby, who Neil learned was the Foxes personal nurse. He arranged for Kevin to stay there until school began so he could go through physical therapy and be with someone that knew what they were doing. Plus, it was a safe hideout since not a lot of people knew about her.  
Then the discharge papers were done and the doctor came back in, talking about the instructions for Kevin’s physical therapy and his prescription. After that, they left the hospital, Wymack leading them all to his car and putting Kevin’s bags inside the trunk.  
Wymack turned to Neil then, and without saying a word, handed him a card with his number on it. Neil understood immediately and nodded, slipping it into his pocket. He’d never use it, but it did feel nice to have.

  
Then Wymack got into the car and started it so Kevin and Neil could say their goodbyes. For a long time, they both just looked at each other, but then Kevin walked over to him and pulled him into a hug.

  
“I’m sorry, I know I promised to stay until graduation, but…”

  
“It’s okay,” he said as he pulled away. “Nobody expected this to happen.”

  
Kevin nodded, offering him a small smile—the tiniest bit of hope inside it. “I’ll keep my other promise, though—I’ll see you on the Court.”

  
“I believe you,” he said, because when Kevin was determined to do something, there was no stopping him. He wasn’t sure how he’d accomplish this, but he knew that somehow, he would. “On the Court, Day.”

  
“Until then, Josten,” he said, and got into the car.

  
Neil could see both of them looking towards him for a moment before Wymack drove off. He waited until they were out of his line of sight before he got back into his car and drove back to Riko.


	2. Moving In

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this chapter is pretty quick, but it's just to get everything set in motion. Enjoy--if you want to.

Going to college and having a chance to play exy there was not what Andrew Minyard thought he would be able to do—ever. 

He thought he’d be dead by 15—but no. He signed a four-year contract with the Palmetto State Foxes, and was going to play exy for them with his twin brother and his cousin, while getting a college degree. It was no small feat to get him here, but he had to admit, he didn’t think it would come with the price of taking in Kevin Day.

Everyone knew who Kevin Day was. He was one of “Riko’s Four” and, in Andrew and many other’s opinions, the best player out of it.

Or at least he was. Until Riko, according to Kevin, took a hammer and smashed his right hand to bits. Their coach Wymack had taken him in for the past few months. He had made Kevin the official unofficial assistant coach to the Foxes. Kevin was the person who had the idea to recruit Andrew, and who agreed to bring in his cousin and brother along with him.

And so they all moved to Columbia to settle in, and once Kevin’s physical therapy was over, Wymack gave him thirty days before forcing Andrew to take him to his house.

He wanted him to live for Andrew to allow Kevin some normalcy—living with a bunch of kids around his age, all while sort of being incognito because nobody knew who Andrew or his family was, there was no way anyone could find him here. Not until announcements started coming in.

This would have been fine with Andrew, under other circumstances. Kevin needed protection, a safe place to stay, and Andrew did feel the urge to protect him. But he had just shown up to his house with his bags and told him he was moving in.

And if Andrew hadn’t had to help him do it.

Kevin was somewhat of a public figure, because of the whole “Riko’s Four” thing—everyone who was in the exy scene knew what he looked like, and if they didn’t, the tattoo gave it away. So Kevin got to hide away in Andrew’s living room while Andrew and his twin had to help bring his things in.

“Why do we have to kiss his ass?” Aaron asked, which seemed a little fair, considering Coach had sent for furniture for Kevin’s bedroom along with his three bags worth of stuff. “Just because he’s Kevin Day and he got hurt? What does that have to do with us?”

Andrew simply shrugged. He knew what that had to do with them, but he was sworn to secrecy by both Kevin and Wymack, so he wasn’t at liberty to say.

Did he hate hiding a giant secret like that from his family, especially when it was dangerous? Yes, but he didn’t break promises.

Plus, it was probably safer that they didn’t know, anyways.

“And how are you not complaining?” Aaron frowned. 

Andrew shrugged, helping Aaron get a desk out of the moving truck. “Kevin’s the reason I got recruited—meaning he’s also the reason you, me, and Nicky got full-rides. Take the bad with the good.”

Aaron just scoffed as they moved the desk inside the living room. “Big words coming from you of all people.”

Andrew could see his point; he wasn’t always the most positive of people. But the truth of the matter is, he was trying to be. He was out of jail, now—off of the antipsychotics the prison had ordered him to take, in college—he was ready for a fresh start.

Not that he’d admit that out loud. 

He just shrugged and made his way to the moving truck to grab the last box full of Kevin’s books. How he accumulated an entire box full of books in the few months he lived with Abby, he had no idea, but he guessed there wouldn’t be much else for him to do over there. He walked inside, set the box on top of the desk, and looked at Kevin, who was sitting on the couch. “Can you handle putting it into your room alone?”

Kevin looked at everything laid out in front of him. “Everything but the desk, probably.”

Andrew was almost surprised at the answer but nodded and gestured for him to take a box before he lead him upstairs to the house’s spare bedroom.

Andrew immediately went to sit on the bed, watching Kevin set a box down. “I was just seeing if you’d do any work,” he said, taking out his pack of cigarettes and going to light one. “Wymack said that besides your PT, you haven’t lifted so much as a finger.”

Kevin looked at him, scoffed, and went to open the window. “I haven’t. Abby coddled me, against what I wanted. I don’t expect the same treatment here.”

Andrew went to sit on the dresser by the window, inhaling the smoke and holding it in before blowing it outside. “Good, because you’re not going to get it. I’ll wait up here. Get Aaron if you need help.”

“Is it just Aaron?” he asked. “Isn’t Nicky supposed to be here?”

“Oh, he’s here,” Andrew said. His cousin Nicky decided worked two jobs in the summer so he can save up money to go to Germany. Long story short, his boyfriend lived there and he wanted to see him. “He’ll be back tonight.”

Kevin nodded and with that, walked out to get the rest of his things. Andrew had lost track of time, but by the time he had finished three cigarettes, Kevin and Aaron were bringing in the desk.

“Thanks for the help,” Aaron said, seemingly out of breath. Andrew didn’t pay him any attention.

After a moment of silence, Aaron left. Kevin stayed and started going through his boxes. Andrew stayed to finish his cigarette.

“Do you guys train at all during your off time?” Kevin asked after starting to go through his box of books.

“Not really,” Andrew said, because lying to their assistant coach was pointless. “Nicky works two jobs, me and Aaron are working, and up until recently, we didn’t think we had any exy related things to care about.”

That seemed to confuse him. He stopped halfway to the shelf he was going to put a book onto and tilted his head at him. “So you really weren’t lying about not caring about it?”

He nodded even though it wasn’t necessarily the full truth. He had played little league in some of the schools he had gone to as a kid, but when he had gone to juvey, it had been the only thing he did besides working out. He grew really attached to the sport, so attached that he taught it to Nicky and Aaron and forced them to play with him.

But did he expect to be able to play exy to get through college? No, he hadn’t been so hopeful. When he met Kevin, he had told Andrew that he was good enough to play in Court. Did he expect that? No—not even in his daydreams.

So caring about it was out of the question, he couldn’t afford not to care—but caring was new to Andrew, and he didn’t really know how to process it.

“While you guys are here, I want to see you practice,” he said after a while.

“It’s barely summer,” he said. It was June 1st—summer practice for PSU didn’t even start until early August.

“It’s better to get an early start, right?” he said. “The Ravens train all year, and that’s why they always win.”

“Foxes made it to the final three last year,” Andrew pointed out. “No June training required.”

“And then you guys lost,” he said. “It’s a factor of not enough teammates and not enough training, I think. You really can’t help the lack of people, but you can help train with your family to keep them in shape.”

Andrew shrugged. “Once a week, and I’m allowed to just stand there and watch them. I already do my workout everyday, and I don’t need training to catch a ball.”

“Deal,” Kevin said after just a moments hesitation. “It’s them that needs to train more than you, anyways.” 

Andrew nodded in agreement—his family was good at the sport, no doubt, but Andrew (and the lack of teammates in general) were the only reason that the two of them got in.

It was then that he heard Nicky coming home, calling out that he was making dinner and that everyone better enjoy it when it’s made.

Nicky only cooked when there was something important he wanted to announce, and so Andrew hopped off the dresser. “We should turn the truck in before it gets too late—if Nicky makes dinner and it gets cold, he gets dramatic.”

Kevin looked like he wanted to question what that meant, but nodded, gesturing for Andrew to grab the keys to his car. “Yeah, let’s go.”

Thankfully, Andrew and Kevin returned the moving truck in and got back home just in time to enjoy Nicky’s dinner. Andrew waited the entire time but he didn’t announce it until afterwards when everyone was cleaning up.

“I just wanted you two to know—and Kevin’s welcome to hear it, too—I’m moving to Germany after I graduate.”

Andrew paused. The only reason Nicky was in America right now was because he took care of Aaron while he was in juvey and took care of them both when Andrew got out. It was only a surprise that Nicky was willing to stay here for college.

“We figured you would be,” Aaron said. “It’s fine, Nicky. We’re not going to hold you back.”

At that, Nicky looked directly at Andrew—and he had to admit, it did sting a bit.

A few years ago, when Nicky had come home from studying in Germany, he had helped Andrew and Aaron get jobs at Eden’s Twilight, a bar that wasn’t too far from where they lived now. A group of people had tried to attack them, and Andrew attacked first. The three guys landed in the hospital, along with Nicky, and it had landed Andrew in juvey. The judge that handled the case thought that Andrew was excessively violent (which in retrospect was fair, but they deserved it) and ordered him to go to extensive therapy and be prescribed antipsychotics up until a few months ago. 

Because he was on those drugs, he became useless, and so Nicky stayed around to help him and Aaron since they had no other family. Then he stayed until Andrew’s case was closed to be a character witness, so he didn’t have to stay on the drugs. And then he stayed to help Andrew through the withdrawals when he had to get off the drugs and go to a mental facility in a week. And now he’s staying to go to college, since he had never gotten the chance in between everything.

It was two incredibly grueling years, not just for Andrew, for all of them. The drugs had turned him into this uncaring thing that wasn’t able to process anything that was happening, and god help everyone if he had missed a dose. He was still the same amount of violent, but they had numbed out his emotions and made him into this apathetic druggie. He was glad to be off them, to say the least—but it’ll be coming up to six months that he was clean of them and he felt like they affected his mental state even now.

So really, it was a miracle Nicky stayed this long. Andrew knew it, he just hated that Nicky knew it too.

“We aren’t,” Andrew said, just trying to make Nicky’s glance hurt less. “You didn’t want to leave Germany in the first place—why would we stop you from going back?”

“I just… wanted to tell you guys that it’s happening,” he said. “We’ll come visit, obviously—and you know you guys are welcome to visit, too. I don’t want me moving to affect our family.”

“It won’t,” Andrew and Aaron said at the same time—a stupid twin thing to do.

There was a long pause before Kevin spoke up. “What’s in Germany that’s so good?”

Everyone looked at Nicky. The sexuality thing was not a subject that had been brought up with Kevin yet, and it was Nicky’s choice to say it. “My boyfriend Erik lives there—we met when I went to school there and we’ve been dating since,” he said eventually, and then everyone looked at Kevin.

Kevin was emotionless, just nodding. “That’s a good thing, that you two could be long distance for so long and still hold that much feeling towards each other.”

Nicky smiled, and the room was visibly less tense. Andrew didn’t think Kevin would be the kind to judge people based on sexuality, but you never know. “I think so too!” he said softly. “We’re planning to get married the year I move back, it’s going to be fantastic.”

Kevin nodded, and then Nicky started his little tirade about how happy he was with Erik. Andrew was happy for his cousin, honestly, but he had heard it so much that he started to tune him out.

“What about you, Kevin? You seeing anyone?” Nicky asked once he was done describing Erik’s abs in perfect detail.

“Uh… Ravens aren’t allowed to date,” Kevin said after a while. “I… had the opportunity to see a few people, but—no, not currently.”

“Oh, so you’re on the market, then?”

“He’s not a pig, Nicky,” Andrew chimed, but then felt an incessant buzz in his pants. He pulled out his phone to see that it was Edgar Allan University calling.

This had not come as a surprise to Andrew. A few months ago, before Andrew had signed with the Foxes—the Ravens had offered him a spot. He had declined the offer, since they wouldn’t take his family in with him. But when Kevin had joined up, he had asked Andrew a favor:

He wanted Andrew to call the Ravens back, ask for a second interview, and talk to Neil Josten. It was to Andrew’s understanding that they were close, and that Neil was in just as much danger as Kevin. He wanted him out. So he had asked Andrew to try to convince him. He didn’t know how he was going to do it yet, but he would try his best if that meant Kevin wouldn’t whine about missing Neil every ten minutes.

Andrew made eye contact with Kevin to let him know that it was them and got up to the living room to answer it. “Minyard speaking.”

“Andrew, it’s Tetsuji. I’m calling about trying to schedule your interview,” Tetsuji Moriyama said, his voice sounding tight. “It’s my understanding that you’d just like Josten to interview you, correct? Why is that?”

“When we interviewed last time, we got along fairly well,” he lied. Neil had called him a cunt when he told them no. “Plus, one-on-ones are always better for me. Is that a problem?”

“No, not at all—Monday, eight o’clock sound okay?”

“Of course, see you then,” with that, he hung up his phone and went back into the kitchen, where Kevin was looking expectantly.

“Did he agree?”

“He did,” Andrew said shortly. “We’ll bring in another stray dog in with us soon.”


End file.
